Credit: Marc Rosenthal

During a summer of (virtual) scandals, lawyers and the press routinely referred to the financial markets of the immersive digital playground Second Life as "lawless" and "a Wild West" (see "The Fleecing of the Avatars"). The flip side of these derogatory terms is that Second Life is a libertarian's dream. As one who studies financial markets, I hope regulators will give markets such as Second Life's enough freedom for us to learn something about how to regulate real-world markets, and when not to try.

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